Can writing be Yoga?

Picture "Buddha Mind" kindly provided by h.koppdelaney

If the aim of Yoga to "Yoke" the different dimensions of ourselves (spiritual, mental, emotional, physical) together into one integrated being, then can writing not also be Yoga?

I often wander what happens to me in the process of writing.  It seems I loose track of time, I forget myself, the words seem to write themselves.  In modern times this is called FLOW, in the 8th limb of yoga this is somewhat similar to Samadhi.

The concept of "FLOW" has been around for a while, probably since the dawn of time. Its a state where the mind loses itself in what it is doing and becomes one with the object of focus.  The arrow and the target are one even before the arrow has left the bow. There is absolutely no way that the arrow can miss its target in time.  Once the mind is focused, it is driven, it will try and try again, what difference does it make if the target is hit today or tomorrow.  The target will be hit, its only a matter of time, because the target is already hit in the mind.

The enemy of "FLOW" is a scattered mind.  In today's society there is just too much distractions, most people do not have the self discipline to maintain a healthy sense of "FLOW" for the most important aspect of their life, themselves!  How many times do people get pulled in all sorts of different directions externally and internally?  Look at anyone these days, the mind is doing something, the body is doing something else!

Flow is required to get into deep meditation or Samadhi, to connect to the real you, the unchanging you.  A great meditation session is one where one loses oneself, but one is not asleep. Time disappears, your mind disappears, your identify disappears What remains? the light of the soul, love, bliss...Some might say this is a dream.

What is real, what is a dream? What we think is real, is only a brief moment of existence compared to the eternity of life, a scale that we cannot even possibly imagine, where the wave comes out of the ocean, finds itself seemly as a separate entity to the ocean.  It thinks itself as real, and the ocean as a dream. So it is with us, when we lift ourselves out of this temporary state of ego, we merge back into the ocean. Daily consciousness is then a dream, the state of self forgetful super-consciousness is reality!

Take this further, what is the concept of romantic love? but a state of self forgetfulness, only the other person exists for you, every second, every minute, every hour, where is mind? where is the emotions? all but tied together in infatuation for this one person.  Is not love then a true expression of Yoga?

Back to writing, in yoga you connect your asana, with your mind, with your sensations, with your breathing. Writing is not much different, feel the weight of the keypad on your fingers, feel the weight of the pen, connect with those sensations in your fingertips, see the movement of the thoughts come to life on the page, write with your mind engaged, the passion of your emotions, and the richness of your spirit.  Change your inner world in the process, and the outer world is sure to follow...

Peace

Kirpal

10000 Hits Thank You!

Picture "Golden Path" kindly provided by  h.koppdelaney

I just went past 10000 hits on my blog. My first set of writings, I uploaded was in December last year, I get about 1000 hits a month average.

Writing has helped me a lot to clear my own head, my own priorities, and provided clarity into the type of person I would like to be.  My writing style has evolved through the practice, shorter, sharper, more intimate,  just like anything else that evolves through repetition. I still don't know when or how I will write the next post though, it sort of like having a "zen beginner mind" every time I start a new post :).

Writing and speaking out one thoughts, helps one think things out, it helps personal insights to happen, it also facilitate the inner healing process. It crystallizes your thoughts at a particular point in your life. I strongly recommend it, even if no-one comes to your blog.

You write for yourself, you write what you are, when you write about something beautiful, you scribe it into your mind, when you act on it, you create subtle impressions that stay with you forever.

Thank you for visiting my site (and glimpsing into my mind :) and sharing my work.

Peace,

Kirpal

Wherever you go there you are!

Picture "The Golden Path II" kindly provided by h.koppdelaney

I am up to the chapter "Wherever you go there you are" in the book with the same name by Jon Kabat-Zinn. I love this book, as he talks about mindfulness, meditation, karma in plain simple English, no need to de-crypt scriptures or poems, just straight up, sort of like a spiritual espresso, except it wakes your soul up!

One of the things about mindfulness and meditation is that it is pretty much opposite to our normal patterns of thinking:
- Instead of doing , there is non-doing
- Instead of thinking, there is emphasis on not thinking, just paying full attention without judgement
- Instead of thinking time, you let go of time, focus on the present, time loses all meaning
- Instead of changing outside, you change inside

You work on yourself, you listen, you pay attention. There is no point running away from anything, it just follows you, until you address your own mental conditions.  Real change only comes when you change your mentality.  This the mirror effect! you look to the world, and over time the world reflects back yourself, crystallizing material things around your thought patterns everywhere you go.

Real change only comes once you change your mentality.

Einstein said something like "Problems cannot be solved at the same level of thinking that created them"

The following is the extract from the chapter which emphasizes the importance of acceptance, facing the current challenges whatever it is, softening to it, learning from it ...

"If this job is no good, change jobs, If this wife is no good, change wives. If this town is no good, change towns ... The underlying thinking is that the reasons for these troubles is outside of you - in the location, in others, in circumstances ...This way of thinking and seeing is an all-too-prevalent trap.  There is no successful escaping from yourself in the long run, only transformation ... There can be no resolution leading to growth until the present situation is faced completely and you have opened to it with mindfulness, allowing the roughness of the situation itself to sand down your own rough edges.  In other words, you must be willing to let life itself become our teacher"  Jon Kabat-Zinn

There can be no resolution leading to growth until the present situation is faced completely and you have opened to it with mindfulness, allowing the roughness of the situation itself to sand down your own rough edges. Jon Kabat-Zinn

No-one can run from oneself, no-one can change oneself except oneself
No-one cannot change one's circumstances unless one changes one's thinking
No-one can change one's thinking until one stops thinking temporarily, allowing deeper contemplation (non-thinking) to guide the response and establish more thoughtful patterns of thinking....

No-one can change one's thinking until one stops thinking temporarily, allowing deeper contemplation (non-thinking) to guide the response and establish more thoughtful patterns of thinking....

Peace,

Kirpal

Bracing for the Storm...

Its been a dark gloomy day, yesterday we stocked up on gas burners, Sharon cleared up 1/2 the shelf of the portable gas cans :). Our freezers are stacked with ice packs. DC is on the outside edges of the hurricane, it has still be declared as a state of emergency. The rain is starting to belt down now, I can hear it as I write, the trees are swaying with the wind, heavy gusts of winds threaten to bring branches down.

I feel sorry for those who don't have the comforts of home today, we do take a lot of things for granted. First it was the earthquake this week, now a hurricane, what next? In my last post I shared my thoughts on the dramatic climate changes all over the world.

See the physical aspect of what we see is always the tip of the ice berg.  The bottom of the ice berg that cannot be seen is 2/3 of the ice berg.  Simarly consciousness manifest itself physically as the tip of the ice berg individually and globally, what is driving the physical is the mental undercurrents underneath.  Ask yourself what sort of consciousness is present in the world today on a mass level?  Is it kind? is it compassionate? is it thoughtful?  For a blessed minority it is, however for most it is not.

What else can we expect but chaos from mindless thinking? Unfortunately peace and order only comes from mindful and compassionate thinking.  That is the law of cause and effect, the law of Karma.  Leaving the lap of Creator, we are all bound by time, space, our actions.  You may say what has climate change got to do with consciousness, unfortunately suffering caused directly or indirectly can't just be swept under the carpet, the law of Karma is just, precise, unforgiving.  Everything is connected, studies in Princeton University has shown that intention has an influence on random events, add on this global warming, pollution, nuclear disasters, oil-spills, you get my drift.

What else can we expect but chaos from mindless thinking? Unfortunately peace and order only comes from mindful and compassionate thinking.  That is the law of cause and effect, the law of Karma.

A qoute follows from one of my past post:

Peace is in Heaven, it needs to be reflected through our actions on Earth...

Compassion is in Heaven, it needs to be reflected through our actions on Earth...

Thoughtfulness is in Heaven, it needs to be reflected  through our actions on Earth...

Purpose is in Heaven, it needs to be reflected  through our actions on Earth...

Love is in Heaven, it needs to be reflected through our actions on Earth...

I end with a native american quote and a silent prayer for grace to help us on this difficult road ahead for us and future generations.

I do not think the measure of a civilization is how tall its buildings of concrete are, but rather how well its people have learned to relate to their environment and fellow man. 

Sun Bear of the Chippewa Tribe

Peace, 

Kirpal 

All Shook Up!

It was yesterday after lunch, I sat down to do some work.  I noticed the some rattling, and I thought it was unusual, it did not stop there, suddenly the whole building started wobbling, I literally felt like I was on a giant jumping castle, only it was my office on the 11th floor of the building.

It is quite concerning that there is so much dramatic changes in the world, you don't have to be a genius to work out that something is dramatically wrong, hurricanes, droughts, tsunamis, earthquakes, rise in sea levels, melting of the polar caps, the Himalayan meltdown.  It is really not a coincidence.  Why don't we top that off with the financial crisis, the high unemployment rates and ridiculous inflation in Asian countries. Our dream time is over, the time for change is now.

You might wander how can a single individual do about it.  I say a single individual can start with oneself!

I say that the problem is a fundamental one, I say that the problem is that we as individuals, and collectively have lost control over our minds and senses.  You may ask what does our minds have to do with it? I say that the problem starts at a mental level.

Let me propose a question to you, if everyone lived within their needs and shared unselfishly, would there not be a conservation and better utilization of natural resources, which would be more than enough to go around, this starts from not wasting food, to turning of the light, to adopting a simpler lifestyle, to not hoard, to having a simpler diet (preferably vegetarian or even less meat).  The example is simplified but it is just to get a point across.  People over the world are fed up with the selfishness and hoarding, they demand that their leaders really start thinking about the people, and doing things right by them.

We have lost the wisdom of our elders, who could counteract the bad ways of society, and provide the much needed guidance to get out of this global mess that we are in.

Do we really think out of mindless behavior we can get anything positive, out of mindless advertising that appeals to gratifying the senses for more money, out of corruption, greed, self, political and corporate agendas that anything positive and sustaining will come out of it?

Order cannot come out of minds full of Chaos and Selfishness, I say that the world cannot come back to equilibrium, until there is a significant mental shift globally.   I do see this shift happening, the question is, will it be too late?  There are beautiful souls out there, I pray that I get to meet them and associate with them, for I too am lost, and need the constant reminders on what is truly important.  I write these blogs as a form of reminder and self affirmation to myself.

I say that the world cannot come back to equilibrium, until there is a significant mental shift globally.   I do see this shift happening, the question is, will it be too late?

Food for thought, lets hope that our children can have some resemblance of peace, order and stability in the years to come.  There is a native american saying that says "We don't own the land, we borrow it from our children"

Peace,

Kirpal

Enjoy the journey and learnings in between

My son was born 3 months premature, I remember driving home petrified not know what was going to happen!  Through Grace he was born with minor issues, although he was in an incubator for 2 or so months.  He could literally fit into the palm of my hand, the simple tasks of breathing and eating was a challenge for him, you could see the effort he expended on each breath!

His challenges did not stop there, at about 4 years of age he was diagnosed as being globally delayed in all areas of development of at least 18 months.  He was in real danger of having a mental disability.  He is now 7 years, and going to a normal school and coping quite well, I could not be more happy with his progress.

It was a 3 year journey to get him  back on track, we got the right guidance from the right people, we had faith in them, we persevered and worked patiently with professionals and at home on the most remedial of tasks, like how to hold a pen, how to tell past, present and future, what a fruit was, what a vegetable was and what was the difference.

Though my son was disadvantaged on many fronts, he had some key strengths which none of my other kids displayed, that was of empathy and ability to smile and make light of every situation.  He did however have issues of confidence, once he got confident in accomplishing the smallest of tasks,with the right encouragement he was able to try bigger tasks.  We were extremely grateful that he had the gift of empathy and compassion, and he is a blessing in our lives.

From this simple story there are many important elements that we can apply in our lives to reach our destination and enjoy the journey and learnings in between.

Right Guidance comes from the Right People, following them requires a certain amount of initial Faith, with Patience and Perseverance and the Right Encouragement we build Confidence in the Guidance and Truths given, and with our inherit Strengths to overcome our weaknesses, Persistence of effort we are able to achieve almost any task given, and be Grateful for many lessons learnt in overcoming the Challenges.

My lessons learnt from this is one of deep Gratitude and Humility, and a sense of how we take simple things for granted.  I remember sitting in the LifeStart support group, with one father saying about his child with down syndrome "Unfortunately unless we can do something about the extra chromosone, there is really not much I can do other than to give my child all the love and support possible".  That just ripped my heart out in that meeting.

Be thankful for what you have, know that it is enough, and know that you can make it through any situation with the help of Friends, Family and Grace.

Peace,

Kirpal

Drink Coffee With Gandhi

I am reading Robin Sharma's book at the moment "The Greatness Guide", I really like this book and his style of writing really resonates with me.  I admire Robin Sharma, his book "The monk who sold his ferrari" was the book which got me started on writing, he is sort of a role model for me.

On his chapter "Drink Coffee With Gandhi", where Robin is reading a book by Gandhi "My Experiments with Truth", he says:

"Reading a book by someone you respect allows some of their brilliance to rub off on you". 

I totally digg this statement, I would go further rubbing shoulders with the people you admire, gets into their minds and understand how they think, and increases your own understanding of the subject.

A human being is a respository of knowledge.

Jim Collins author of good to great also says always work out "Who" first before you work out the "What", if you admire certain people or what they are doing, chances are you like their habits or their role subconciously, and you should really be "hanging out" with them.  Try taking them out for coffee, helping them out, taking to them, bouncing ideas of  them, asking them to mentor you.

I know no more of a powerful way than to learn than to associate with or read about the people that  you want to be like.

Peace,

Kirpal

Doing Yoga & Qi Gong Outside

Rooftop Qi Gong @ Broadway Hotel in New York

Finishing up my holidays, back to work tommorrow.  Its been a whirlwind of a holiday, which I have enjoyed very much, to Canada, Las Vegas, Florida & New York.  It will take me a couple of days to get into the swing of things. 

One of the things I have been doing is Yoga & Qi Gong outside.  I am sure that is how nature intended us to do exercise, I must say I think it adds another element of spaciousness and Qi. 

There is nothing I like more than lying down in "Corpse Pose" looking up into the chandlier of the hanging leaves over me and listening to the free sweet songs of the chirping birds, feeling the rays of warm light and the cool morning breeze against my skin.

The chinese indicate that Qi is all around us, and advise not to practise Qi Gong in a room that is not well circulated.  Assuming this is true, Yoga and Qi Gong, and any sort of exercise would benefit from doing it outdoors.

I understand Qi as the soul energy (Heaven) interacting with the 5 elements (Earth) to give a "Life Force", this life force has to flow like water through all our energy circuits of our body.  Yoga and Qi Gong, helps remove any blockages in our minds and bodies, and lets these subtle currents flow.  The Earth also has a healing resonance called the schumann resonance which is around 7.83 Hz from memory.  The sun and the moon also have their subtle energies. 

Be creative to find spots outside to exercise, parks, rooftops, balconies and experiment with different timings, sunset, sunrise etc.

Peace,

Kirpal

Vegan Restaurants in New York

Just came back from New York and sampled some of the vegetarian restaurants there (Ontarian, Franchia) .  I was inspired by some of the tastes, and went out looking for a cook book by a local vegetarian restaurant, and struck jackpot.  I found a book by the Candle Cafe.

I tried a modified improvised Ginger Miso Recipe, I had no miso and Agave, so I used Sesame Paste, Sweet Soy instead, and it was great!

Enjoy the recipes, and save the planet, and avoid bad karma for yourself by adapting a vegetarian or meat reduced diet.  Methane 20 times more warming than CO2, and most of it comes from livestock.  It also takes away resources such as water and grains from more productive use.

Peace,

Kirpal

Paying for inspiration, imagination and to forget yourself

Here's a post I did in the plane last week on the way back from Vegas:

I managed to catch 3 shows, KA CDS, the Lion King & Zumanity CDS. The Lion King was really amazing, the vocals and music were mind-blowing, a lot of animal props were used. Its amazing how powerful story telling is as a communication medium even in the working world.

The KA show involved a lot of gravity defying performances, it was really surreal. Zumanity was the last show, I am not quite sure how to describe it, it was a mix of cabaret and acrobatics.

Its amazing how much shows such as these are so popular and that reflects in the premium paid for their prices, it seems that people are will to pay to see imagination, art, laugh, be inspired and forget themselves, for an hour or so. All these things should be part of our daily life everyday. The stress and the negative 'programming' daily robs us of all this.

Ever seen an interview with the Dalai Lama, a humble man who wears a robe, who spreads messages of peace and compassion, the heartfulness of his laughter, his sense of humor, his humility, his simplicity, compassion and genuine concern for his fellow humans being and the planet. Don't go much further, go to a kindergarten, and see how a child plays and laughs naturally, see the imagination that happens spontaneously.

Peace,

Kirpal

Las Vegas Holiday Reflections 1 - The Flight Back

Picture "Hoover Dam Under Full Moon" kindly provided by http://www.flickr.com/photos/rightbrainphotography/

I wrote the following text on my plane back from Vegas last week:

I am on my flight back from Vegas, as I look down I see the Hoover dam and the lake, I did not realize how big the reservoir was.  It is am amazing construction, with multiple turbines generating electricity, I need to get the transformer movie out and watch it again with my kids. 

It has been a packed three days at Vegas, the Grand Canyon views were breathtaking, looking across this vast valleys take your breath way and for a few seconds you lose yourself in this vastness.  There are no fences on the ledges, one slip of your feet, strong gush of wind, accidental pushes, fainting will lead to a quick death.

The holiday so far has been great we all need a break from our everyday affairs and recharge.  I do miss my kids and can't wait to go home and do some fun things with them over the holiday summer break. 

We often think that we can put away holidays, a mistake I have made many times, but its these memories are the only priceless things in our lives.  These memories are like treasures, I remember the trips more than anything else in my life, I will never forget how the Taj Mahal looked in the moon light, or catching the waves on a boogie board in the Carrabean Seas in the Island of Magarita, or moving in waves of thousands of people in India, just to get a "darshan" (glipse/blessing) of a Spiritual Leader.

No one is going to thank you for all the late hours you or the money you saved 10,20 years down the track, nothing is more empty than the a large bank account with no memories of love, peace and feelings of awe!

Peace,

Kirpal

Why I did not gamble in Las Vegas!

I normally played the poker machine in the past.  I thought I would go to Vegas and try my luck with a very small amount of money eg $20.  However when I got there it did not fit quite right with me.  The thought of gambling when it came to doing it game me a sick feeling in the stomach especially after I saw a person losing about 15K in less then 10 seconds.

My spiritual mentor always said the term "Haram ki Khana Hasam Nei Hunda!" What it means basically is that one cannot digest food that is not earnt by hard work!

Its a difficult lesson to learn, but one that is important to learn.  I did not feel the urge to gamble in the hope of winning something big.   When you look at the probrabilities of winning are stacked against you. The only people that win are the people that lure you in the trap of foolish possibility of winning by showing you only situations where people win, dancing half naked girls, intoxicants and so on!

There is a deeper ethical question that is here, it is quite a prominent one.  "Would you make money at the possible detriment of another, and is this worth the cost of your humanity?"  This issue makes me sick.  There is so much money specifically in fast food, medicine, drugs, human trafficing, identity theft, spam that is based on this very concept.

Sure you can make money legally or illegally in these areas, but does it sit well with you, can you sleep at night, can you look yourself in the mirror, can you eat that spoon of food that has the blood of other beings and animals!  Or this does not bother you?

Unfortunately no-one escapes the results of their actions, small or big.  Action create subtle imprints on the mind that builds a person character, that stays with the persons character indefinately, until other actions either reinforce the original action or work against it.

Food for thought,

Peace,

Kirpal

The Hedgehog Instructor

It was a three day "Use Case" course with the "Hedgehog Instructor" that I attended last week.

The Bullshit Factor

In the course there was a section where we were talking about estimation, there was some acronyms such as TCF, (Technical Complexity Factor).  I interrupted a colleague JS, and said "you are not talking about the TCF you are talking about the BSF!"  

The whole class burst out laughing, including me, I darted across the room to JS and gave him a high five!  The instructor clarified that I was refering to the BullShit Factor, I said yes, and there was another explosion of laughter.   

The instructor said it was one of the most enjoyable classes he had taught.

Hedgehog Instructor

I refer to him as the  "Hedgehog Instructor" because he encapsulated the principles of the hedgehog concept, he was passionate about what he did, he had key strengths on communicating and teaching, and he had an economic engine teaching about relevant technical concepts in the technology industry.

I asked him a few questions:
He did an MBA, I asked him how he applied it?, he said he applies it to managing himself as a brand.

I asked him how he kept himself sharp to be able to deliver such an effective training course, he said keeping himself fit and avoiding negative people and keeping positive.

Combining training and consulting is a powerful combination, you learn you apply, you teach you learn.

There is a saying that when one teaches two people learn.

Personal Hedgehog
As I reflect on this excellent real life example:

To get meaning out of life, we must look at what we feel passionate about, what we can leverage as our key innate strengths and how we can channel these through the economic/work related areas to achieve a economic/work sustainability.

Economic reality is a means to an end, not a means itself, channeling  passion & strengths through work gives a powerful and a complete ecosystem of a successful & enjoyable life.

Out of this I have set myself some personal goals to accomplish:

1. Get the relevant certifications by end of 2012

   1.1 Toastmaster 

   1.2 Business Intelligence

   1.3 Business Analysis

2. Experiment channeling personal passion and strengths through technical/economic concepts

   

Peace,

Kirpal

   

You are much more than what you know you are...

Amazing video, please excuse the embedded advertising messages that come with the video.

Here is a subset of a conversation I had today with a colleague, I thought I would share some of my ramblings with you:

you are much more than you know you are

what you are is indescribable!

what you see in the mirror each day is just a facade

our true nature is love, unimaginable intelligence and compassion

the pathway to potential that is the opposite of what the world would know it to be

path to potential lies not in ego or blowing your trumpet, its about humility

path to potential lies not in our own selfish needs but for the greater good of the planet

path of potential is not being a millionaire it is about living simply and being content
path to potential is not about doing lots of things, its about doing a fewer important things

path to potential implies we have to look at these paradoxes, or at least re-evaluate ourselves

once you do that the potential starts opening up

once you start abusing it starts closing up

its never a final destination

we all are imperfect

its our struggle with our imperfections that makes us perfect

its like a baptism of fire

the fire of struggle burns away our impurities

Peace,

Kirpal

"You were born with potential.
You were born with goodness and trust.
You were born with ideals and dreams.
You were born with greatness.
You were born with wings.
You are not meant for crawling, so don't.
You have wings.
Learn to use them and fly."
~ Rumi ~


"I wish I could show you,
When you are lonely or in the darkness,
The Astonishing Light
Of your own Being!"
~ Hafiz ~

Reflections of the Snatam Kaur Concert

(On the video at 1.10 seconds look at the post in front of you, I am in yellow next to the post upstairs on the second row with my hands up)

As I reflect on the concert there are some thoughts that come to mind. There are many, but I list them down according to no specific order

The diversity of the crowd
First of all what struck me was the diversity of the crowd, there weren't that many Indian Sikhs, that struck me as odd, there were 3 indian Sikhs I saw in the crowd (1 related to me, the other who works with me, and another I met in a swimming pool last year with 3 gorgeous kids). I may have missed some, but as a habit I tend to observe more than the performers but the audience itself. What impressed me was the interest in the Sikh chants to a non-Sikh community.

I had a "qi gong buddy" with two fingertips missing (on his left hand) in the crowd who I recognized, he was an asian guy, but my God, he was really in trance state, doing flowing "qi gong" type movements and singing with his eyes close.  I hope he reads this post and sends me an email.

True Leadership
Having a strong interest in leadership.  I could not help notice Snatam's leadership qualities. Snatam did do a really good job in acknowledging each crew member and her family, giving a white rose to each one.  This is at the heart of true leadership.  They say actions speak louder than words, and true spirituality in action is really hard to find.

Anyone can be a singer, but not anyone can be a singer and have the upmost love, devotion and humility to the cause that reflects in every note that is sung.  Besides Snatam I was really impressed with Thomas on the keyboard and Ramesh on the tabla.

An embodiment of love

I had the good fortune of meeting Snatam after the concert, she was kind enough to give even more of herself after the concert. What to say about Snatam herself.  Well all I can say is that she is an embodiment of love, and an example for us to follow.  

They say the real test of a master is the quality of the students he/she leaves (If you want to see the quality of the master, look at the quality of the student), well I would say that Yogi Bhajan Ji has accomplished an unbelievable feat with the legacy and the quality of students that he has left (not just Snatam).  The treasures of Sikhism have been opened up to a new generation all together.  

The whole experience inspired me to write the poem "Voice of an Angel, heart of a Saint" the next day.

Peace,

Kirpal

Guru Habit 2 - Acceptance

Great Photo by h.koppdelaney under Creative Commons

The Second Guru Habit is Acceptance.

We are strange creatures - "We don't change what we should, and we spend enormous amount of energy trying to change things we can't!".  Somehow the grass always seems to be greener on the other side.  The person on the other side is probably thinking the same about you :)

Why is acceptance so hard? Do we know whats better for us than the power that creates and sustains the whole universe? Acceptance has been one of my personal challenges in my life. The reason why acceptance is so hard for us is because we think happiness lies in material needs. No wonder we are so bloody unhappy! because the material gratification is always temporary and ever-changing, and when it perishes it takes us with it. "We are like dogs chasing their own tails in an endless loop!"

If we do manage to get something sacrificing everything else in the path, we can always lose it too. Just look at the unemployment situation in America, where are the high flying execs now, who compromised their health, values, time with their family only now to be in debt to their necks, due to overextension of themselves!

Acceptance also allows you to spend your precious time more wisely, one thing that is priceless is your time on Earth and Peace of Mind. No amount of money or self gratification can buy you that!

Why not spend that time in pursuit of spiritual investigation, insight and development of supporting positive habits. Our innermost desires are only to satisfy our spiritual hunger and to love and to be loved in its purest form. However our limited frame of reference substitutes material desires instead, which gives us temporary and superficial gratification only.

Acceptance and real happiness can only come with Self Moderation, Meditation, Compassion and the Company of people who value the truth over the lies of the world (SatSang - True (Sat) Company (Sang))

Self Moderation teaches you that happiness does not lie in Self Gratification, and teaches you self control, stopping you from getting into more entangled into this world of suffering.

Meditation stills the restless mind, and gives it what it needs, rest, silence, solitude, so that it can recharge for the next challenge coming its way, it also keeps us sane!

Compassion shows you that real happiness lies in giving and sharing rather than hoarding.

Discontent company will automatically make you discontent. SatSang reinforces your own values, and gives you the momentum for permanent change, and an opportunity to learn the right thoughts and habits for true happiness.

To close I would like to mention something I said in passing to a friend of mind one day: "Half the battle to be a spiritual person is to learn acceptance and be thankful for the things you have been given." I hope this contemplation of the great Virtue of Acceptance has given you some appreciation how important it is for our happiness everyday.

Wishing you Love, Compassion & Peace of Mind,

Kirpal


This work by Kirpal Chauhan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License